Human Resource Management Practices at Primark: A Report

Desklib provides past papers and solved assignments. This report analyzes Primark's HRM.

Unit 3: Human Resource Management
1

Table of Contents
Introduction...................................................................................................................... 3
Task 1.............................................................................................................................. 4
Conclusion....................................................................................................................... 5
Reference list................................................................................................................... 6
2

Introduction
Human resource management is regarded as the strategic approach to effective
workforce management within a company so that they assist the business in achieving
competitive advantage. It is the practise of hiring, recruiting, deploying and managing
employees of a firm. HR department of an organization is responsible for extending the
employee and the overall organisational performance to the maximum potential.
“Primark” is an Irish Fast fashion retail company based in UK premises deals with
mainly fast fashion products for men, women, children and youths. The company was
established in 1969, more than 49 years ago and now the company has its presence in
over 368 different locations. Primark has over 70,000 employees those have assisted
to generate revenue of £7.25 billion (primark, 2019).
This study will shed light on purpose and different functions of HRM. Different
recruitment approaches will be evaluated along with their strengths and weaknesses.
Different effective HRM practices will be determined and significance of those HRM
practices in benefiting employer and employees in an organization will be assessed as
well.
3

Task 1
Introduction
HR focuses on leading and motivating an organizational workforce appropriately so that
business venture can achieve competitive advantage (Cascio, 2015). Different functions
and role of HRM along with the effectiveness of HRM practices will be assessed in this
portion of the study.
1. Define HRM and explain the purpose of HRM in an organisation.
Human resource management is all about accelerating performance of the employees
to their maximum potential corresponding to their designation in an organization. It is
about acquiring services of people, improving their skills and motivating them to perform
better towards accomplishing organizational targets (Bratton and Gold, 2017).
It encompasses range of key functions in a company like Primark, with limitless
responsibilities for appropriate management of staffing, employee relation,
compensation, benefits and training. The purpose of HR management of Primark is
recruiting the most eligible candidates for the organization and accelerating the
organizational production and sales revenue simultaneously. Apart from that, HR
manager of an organization also focuses upon maintaining the adequate return on
investment. HR department adopts an effective and healthy work environment that
increases employee satisfaction standard and employee engagement. HR of Primark is
responsible for creating policies in order to make employee disciplined and visionary as
well as shaping the organization.
2. Identify and list from your reading about HRM, the various functions of
HRM in an organisation
HR manager of Primark plays wide range of important functions such as recruitment
and selection, orientation, maintaining good working conditions, training and
development, managing employee relation and others. However, the main function of
4

HR department is resourcing the organization with proper resources so that the
company can perform better in business field (Lussier and Hendon, 2017).
Figure 1: Functions of HRM
(Source: Cascio, 2015)
Apart from that, HR manager is responsible for making workforce planning, redundancy,
managing risks, policy formulation, and labour relation in the company.
3. Select 2 from your above list and explain them in detail.
Recruitment and section
Recruitment is regarded as the process of captivating, screening and recruiting the
most eligible candidates because of objective criteria for a specific job (Ekwoaba et al.,
2015). HR manager of Primark is responsible for resourcing an organization with
appropriate resources.
Maintaining good working condition
HR department is responsible for maintaining good working conditions all the while in
an organization. Healthy work condition and employee-employer relation are important
5

for organizational growth and success. HR manager of Primark maintains the work
condition for better performance of the company.
4. Identify various approaches of recruitment and selection.
Recruitment is the process of resourcing an organization with appropriate candidates.
During recruitment, candidate and recruiter both try to impress each other with the aim
of long-term relationship and happiness. Organizations provide each detail regarding
the job to candidates for garbing their attention. Recruiter focuses upon reaching out
more numbers of potential candidates. However, there are mainly two recruitment
approaches; internal and external approach. Successful companies like Primark use
both of the techniques for fulfilling their vacancies with eligible candidates. Internal
recruitment is the process of recruiting candidates from the inside the company without
allowing outside candidates (Bidwell and Keller, 2014). Apart from that, external
recruitment approach is fulfilling vacant job roles by eligible candidates those are
outside the company. In external recruitment process, candidates have to go from
different exam stages, where they have to show their organizational knowledge and
skills to be selected.
However, selection is the process of putting the right man in right job designation in a
particular organization like Primark. In this process, the qualification and skills of the
candidates is checked with the requirements of the company. Candidates have to go
from different exams like aptitude test, written test, HR round, group debate,
psychographic test and others. Companies like Primark are likely to maintain their
selection system to update their facilities in random manner. It allows selecting the most
eligible candidates for the organization from a pool of applicants. There are multiple
approaches of selection; however, most of the successful companies including Primark
use personalised and systematic selection approach. Personalised selection method
is aimed at identifying personal details of the candidates, their traits, skills, life style and
other related things, where systematic approach focuses upon reducing the personal
biasness during a recruitment process. Both of the selection approaches are effective
enough that it can assist organizations like Primark to select and hire the most eligible
candidates.
6

5. Select 2 approaches among each of recruitment and selection and explain
them in detail highlighting the strengths and weaknesses.
Approaches Strengths Weaknesses
Internal approach  Internal recruitment
approach is time
saving
 It takes less time to
conduct
 This limits potential
candidates’ number
External approach  External recruitment
approach is the
most effective
approach for hiring
eligible employees
 Highly reliable
 Takes high time and
cost to select
eligible candidates
Figure 1: Strengths and Weaknesses of two recruitment approaches
(Source: Created by learner)
6. You are to select an organisation and identify various HRM practices in that
organisation and list them.
HRM practices are those special practices that are designed for accelerating the
employee performance, organizational profitability, growth and success (Lussier and
Hendon, 2017). Successful companies like Primark always use effective HRM practices
that are listed below:
 Extensive training
 Selective hiring
 Employee safety
 Rewards and compensation
7

7. Select more than one practice and explain the benefits for both the
employer and employee providing appropriate examples for each type within an
organisational context.
HRM practices are designed in such way that it can provide benefit to both employer
and employees simultaneously.
HRM practices Employer Employees
Employee safety Through maintaining
employee safety practices
in the organization like
Primark, employer will
influence employee
engagement and increase
employee satisfaction
level. Satisfied employee
performs better and
employer generates higher
revenue.
Employees make sure
regarding their health and
safety so that they can
focus on improving their
performance standard.
Selective hiring Through using selective
hiring, employer can
recruit the most eligible
and suitable candidates
along with all the required
skill set (Merkl and Van
Rens, 2018). Alternatively,
it allows an employer
extending their market
shares and profitability.
Due to selective hiring
process, employees can
learn wide range of
lessons related to business
and marketing. Employees’
can extend their
organizational knowledge
boundaries as well.
Table 2: Benefits of HRM practices
(Source: Created by learner)
8

8. Now give details of how your selected practices will benefit your selected
organisation in terms of profit and productivity. Justify your answers with
examples.
Primark is one of the most famous Irish fast fashion retail companies across the globe
so that they must focus upon generating higher profits in business. Selective hiring is
the process that assists the organization to select the effective employees that will help
the company to face future business challenges. Additionally, effective employees
accelerate organizational production and profitability. Employee safety increases
influences employee engagement and increases employee satisfaction level.
Alternatively, it assists in retention and engagement of effective employees that is
important for business growth and success.
Conclusion
It is concluded that HR manager has several important functions in an organization that
actually are aimed at improving employees as well as organizational performance,
which results in higher organizational profits. Significance of HRM practices have been
detailed in the above section.
9

Conclusion
It can be concluded that human resource management is one of the most important
departments that oversees all functions of an organization. The main purpose of HRM is
resourcing an organization with proper talents and skills. There are mainly two
recruitment approaches; internal and external. Both have been discussed in the above
section. HR manager sets HRM practices according to the needs of the particle
organization. HRM practices are designed in such way that it can provide benefits to
both employees and employer simultaneously.
10

Reference list
Bidwell, M. and Keller, J.R., 2014. Within or without? How firms combine internal and
external labor markets to fill jobs. Academy of Management Journal, 57(4), pp.1035-
1055.
Bratton, J. and Gold, J., 2017. Human resource management: theory and practice.
Palgrave.
Cascio, W.F., 2015. Managing human resources. McGraw-Hill.
Ekwoaba, J.O., Ikeije, U.U. and Ufoma, N., 2015. The Impact of Recruitment and
Selection Criteria on Organizational Performance.
Lussier, R.N. and Hendon, J.R., 2017. Human resource management: Functions,
applications, and skill development. Sage publications.
Merkl, C. and Van Rens, T., 2018. Selective hiring and welfare analysis in labor market
models.
primark 2019. Primark - Homepage. [online] Primark.com. Available at:
http://www.primark.com/en [Accessed 13 Apr. 2019].
11